Conclusion: Linguistic Market, Audiences and Reflexivity

Abstract

This conclusion discusses four questions arising from the foregoing study of language and the media. Firstly, because Bourdieu’s ideas on language were conceived of quite some time ago (principally in the 1970s), one might ask whether they are still relevant to theoretical debates on language and the media today. Secondly, it may also be asked why certain concepts from Bourdieu’s theoretical repertoire have been subordinated in this book. This relates in particular to the idea of linguistic ‘market’, which has only really been discussed in formal terms in Chapters 1 and 3. Thirdly, even if this study has been focused mainly on the ‘internal’ relations of the media field, what of the reception and audience dimensions of this topic? Fourthly, if it is accepted that reception is indeed a subordinate concern of the foregoing analysis, to what extent can the postulation of a Husserlian review of Bourdieu (the third of this book’s key themes) be sustained if we have not ‘heard’ the voices of lay actors themselves?